


big god (you'll always be my favorite ghost)

by SparkleMoose



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Buckle Up Lads We're Delving into MT Culture, Child Soldiers, Clones, Leto is the reincarnation of an Ancient Sol Astrologian, MT Nicknames, Nicknames, Other, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reincarnation, Unethical Experimentation, White Magic, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 17:53:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18722020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SparkleMoose/pseuds/SparkleMoose
Summary: Noctis dies with the night.When he opens his eyes again, he's nineteen and given the chance to redo everything.Leto dies as dawn gives away to night.When he opens his eyes, it is to sterile white labs and the reminder that he's not what he once was.





	big god (you'll always be my favorite ghost)

Perhaps it is selfish for Noctis to be grateful he hadn’t met his soulmate. Perhaps it is selfish for Noctis to be relieved in some way that there is no lover he has to say goodbye to; no one he has to kiss goodbye before heading to his death. It could be selfish to glad that he never found his soulmate despite knowing that his other half could still be out there. A part of him had always longed for a soulmate, but now, as he sits upon the throne of his forebearers he can’t help but be glad he’s never found them.

 

Noctis has said his goodbyes. 

 

In the final moments, before Dawn comes, Noctis dies alone.

 

* * *

 

Leto has, in his opinion, the worst taste in men. If one requires evidence they need to look no further than the fact that Leto’s ex-boyfriend had just run him through with a sword. 

 

He curses, summoning the last of his strength to turn his white magic dark and rot the flesh from his ex-lovers bone.

 

Leto dies in the arms of the Planet, and the last thing he hears is his former lover screaming.

 

* * *

 

The leaves filter light from the sun, causing an array of shade and light to cast itself on Noctis’ face. The Prince himself lets his eyes catch on the way the sun casts shadow and light on everything it touches.

 

Balance is needed. Those were the last words he remembers hearing before he woke up eleven years in the past. The others, his friends, who had travelled back with him had puzzled over the words with him. Ignis had proposed that it meant a balance between light and darkness, but none of them have yet to figure out how that might be achieved.

 

Balance is needed, and it’s up to Noctis and his friends to figure out how to keep both sides in check.

 

Noctis heaves a sigh, closing his eyes as he wonders if being sent back is a gift or a reprisal. If he had succeeded or if he had failed. Why would he and the others be sent back if they had succeeded then? Why would they be sent back if not to fix, or bring balance, to something that had gone wrong?

 

Those are questions Noctis has entertained dozens of times since he woke up in the body of his nineteen-year-old self and he’s still no closer to finding out the answers.

 

“Are you alright?” a voice asks, soft but steady and the second Noctis opens his eyes again he has to bite back the instinctive urge to call forth a weapon.

 

Red eyes stare back at him, confusion flittering through their depths as they lock with Noctis’ blue eyes. For a moment, the world around Noctis seems to still before two bright lights illuminate the marks on both of their shoulders.

 

The newcomer, Noctis’ soulmate, draws a sharp breath as they spy the simple circle on Noctis’ shoulder glow through his tee-shirt. Noctis himself stays riveted, shock rooting him in place as he stares at the crescent shape glowing on his soulmates hand.

 

It takes him a moment, but when Noctis gathers himself enough that he’s able to finally take in the appearance of the newcomer he pauses. There’s a familiarity in the facial features, a softness to them that Noctis has seen somewhere else but can’t quite place. The strangers red eyes are striking but what catches Noctis attention is the strangers colouring.

 

The stranger has tawny brown skin and black hair. It’s an unusual combination to have with red eyes but Noctis has seen stranger things and lets the others unusual colour combo slide.

 

“Uh,” the stranger starts, eyes wide and fingers twitching, “This- This is weird. I should go. Yeah. I should totally go.”

 

Something in Noctis’ heart aches as he takes in the terror and awe on the stranger’s face.

 

This isn’t fair, he thinks as the stranger takes a step back, Why bring Noctis’ soulmate to him now? Why let them meet now? When Noctis knows the price he has to pay for light? Why let Noctis meet his soulmate, his other half when he knows he’ll have to leave them?

 

The Gods, Noctis reflects, standing as his soulmate takes another step back, are a cruel lot.

 

Noctis knows he should let them run, should let his soulmate flee but-

 

Part of him wants to be selfish, to indulge in the selfish wish to meet and befriend his soulmate. To let his soulmate be part of his life.

 

But he can’t. He can’t in good conscious let his soulmate into his life when he knows his fate is to die. He can’t let his soulmate become attached to him when he knows he’ll just break their heart.

 

His soulmate takes another step back before turning and fleeing, the light on their hand fading as they run.

 

Noctis watches until they fade from sight and the light on his shoulder fades.

 

He can’t help but feel like he’s lost something important.

 

* * *

 

Leto is-

 

Well, to be honest, he’s not sure what he’s feeling. All he knows is that his hands won’t stop shaking, that he feels like a cornered rat, that he has to flee Insomnia right away because the Prince is his soulmate.

 

The Prince is his soulmate.

 

The Prince. His soulmate. It’s a hard idea for him to wrap his head around, the Six could have chosen anyone for their Prince but they had chosen Leto.

 

And Leto, most assuredly, is not someone the Prince wants as a soulmate.

 

He’s certain of it, so why does it hurt with every step he takes away from Noctis?

 

Why does he feel like he should go back?

 

He’s read somewhere that one of the consequences of leaving your soulmate's side abruptly so soon after meeting them could be pain, followed by intense feelings of loneliness and depression. It’s not healthy to leave his soulmate so soon after meeting him, Leto knows this. It’s not healthy to leave one’s soulmate before their bond has settled, Leto knows this.

 

He just doesn’t care at the moment. Doesn’t care that running could hurt him. Doesn’t care that it isn’t fair to Noctis, to the Prince that Leto is running from any future they might have together. Leto is a selfish being by nature and he doesn’t give two damns that he’s hurting his soulmate by running.

 

He’d hurt a lot more people if he stayed.

 

* * *

 

Once there was a creature. 

 

There was a creature with too dark hair and too brown skin. A creature with red eyes and dark curls for hair. A creature that itself was an oddity among a sea of others that were supposed to be like it but were not.

 

Once upon a time, there was a creature with a soulmark on the back of their hand and a barcode tattooed under it. There was a creature that should not have been, a creature that made the others feel things, realize that what was happening to them was wrong.

 

Once upon a time, a creature remembered the past and gave himself a name.

 

Once upon a time, MT Unit R-eB1303 decided she wasn’t a creature and gave herself a name.

 

Once upon a time, Leto, R-eB1300 and the other R units decided that enough was enough. They slaughtered their way out of their home and never looked back.

 

They were all defective after all, and none of them had wanted to die.

 

* * *

 

With shaking hands, Leto grips his cellphone and tucks himself into an alleyway so no one can hear his conversation.

 

His call goes to voice mail as expected but that does nothing to ease the tremor in Leto’s voice when he speaks.

 

“Zero-” Leto says, “Zero I- I found my soulmate and I don’t know what to do. Call me back? Please?” Leto ends the call, tucks his cellphone back into his pocket and lets against the back of the grimy alleyway wall.

 

“Fuck,” Leto says to no one and nothing in particular, “Fuck this.”

 

* * *

 

Leto remembered another life. Another life where he dressed in black and white and studied stars and aether. Another life where he wove magic to heal those who needed it and divined the future from stars. Leto remembers the towers of Ancient Solheim and the laughter of his fellow astrologians.

 

Leto remembers being more than a discarded experimented, and he thinks that in the end, that’s what saves them all.

 

They would have died, he knows, during the escape had it not been for Leto’s clever use of magic. They would have died, and although Leto had overused his magic stores to the point it burns to cast more complex spells without an anchor now he doesn’t regret doing it.

 

Those that escaped with him are his family.

 

He refused to leave them behind.

 

* * *

 

Maybe his past is apart of the reason he doesn’t want to get attached to the Prince, to his soulmate. Once the Citadel found out what Leto was, what Leto is, they is no way they would allow him to remain by the prince’s side.

 

Better to not get attached in the first place, Leto thinks, looking to the sky even as the thought of not being with Noctis hurts.

 

_ Better for both of us this way. _

**Author's Note:**

> ...hey  
> hey  
> who asked for a soulmate au feat an oc and timetraveling noctis?  
> no one?  
> okay.  
> that's fine.  
> have this anyway.


End file.
